[NTLUG:Discuss] strange init/zombie problem

[Kyle_Davenport@compusa.com]

ok, I'll be the first to say it: are you sure your machine was not compromised?
Specifically "rpm --verify SysVinit" and the xmms dependents (ldd `which xmms`).

I can believe that something killed "init"  (kill -9 1) and the kernel
re-spawned it, but that wouldn't account for your problems with xmms


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Seth Daniel <seth at ti.com> on 11/08/99 09:43:55 AM

Please respond to discuss at ntlug.org

To:   discuss at ntlug.org
cc:    (bcc: Kyle Davenport/Is/Corporate/CompUSA)
Subject:  [NTLUG:Discuss] strange init/zombie problem



All,

A strange problem popped up over the weekend.  I was playing
around with some different kernel configurations so I rebooted
a few times.  Once everything was ok I brought up X and went
about doing whatever it is that I normally do.

Anyway, about two hours later some very strange things were
happening on the system.  A check of the process table (ps ax)
showed that almost everything that I had run since rebooting
the machine was a zombie!  Further investigation showed that the
init process (process 1) was not running.  Or better, there was
a process 1, but it had no name (there was a blank in the process
listing were the name should have been).  I assume the reason
for all the zombies was because init was not reaping processes
like it should.  Anyway, I rebooted and now everything seems
normal.  However, I'd really like to know a) how this could have
happened, and b) how I can prevent it (or if I can prevent it).

It doesn't appear that init crashed.  There was no core dump
anyway.  I assume that if it had crashed there wouldn't have
been a process 1 in the table anyway.

One other thing.  All of a sudden XMMS can't stay up for more
than 1 or 2 hours.  I generally have to kill it because it's
eating up half my memory.  This happens whether I use it or
not (it's ``running'' but I haven't played any music with it).
This didn't happen until all of this other stuff started
happening.

I'm currently running kernel 2.2.9.   I attempted to use
2.2.13 over the weekend, but I had strange problems while
using it too.  I thought that going back to my old kernel
would solve the problems, but it did not.
--
seth daniel  |  Texas Instruments DMOS4/5
seth at ti.com  |   Automation Engineering

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